Microsoft is retiring an Excel component

A few days ago, we covered all the new features that Microsoft added to Excel in October 2025, but just as capabilities get introduced, they can get removed as well. Now, the Redmond tech giant has announced the retirement of a first-party add-in for Excel.

The Visio Data Visualizer add-in is getting the axe next month. It is primarily used by customers to convert spreadsheet content into Visio diagram, such as a flowchart. This was very beneficial to some users as the Visio diagram generation did not require the use of a Visio license. The add-in will be retired on December 8, 2025, and although the reasons for its deprecation are not explicitly stated, it's likely that Microsoft wants its Excel customers to just directly use Visio instead.

The Visio Data Visualizer add-in will continue to be accessible from AppSource and the Excel ribbon until December 8, 2025. After that, all templates will be removed from the add-in store and users will not be able to create new diagrams.

That said, customers will have the ability to back up their existing diagrams until March 2, 2026. Microsoft 365 subscribers are encouraged to save diagrams in .vsdx formats and then open them in Visio for the web. Meanwhile, if you're a non-commercial customer, you can convert the diagram in an image format and export it; follow the instructions detailed in Microsoft's blog post here. The Redmond firm has emphasized that even though data refresh capabilities and Visio diagrams embedded in Excel won't load after March 2, the underlying data will remain unaffected.

In terms of alternatives, Microsoft has encouraged customers to migrate to Visio Plan 2 and Visio desktop. Visio comes bundled in Microsoft 365 for commercial customers, but you can also purchase it separately through Plan 1 ($5/month) and Plan 2 ($15/month) - check out the differences here. You can also give the company feedback about Visio itself directly through the dedicated portal here.

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Posted Tuesday 4 November 2025 at 6:09 pm AEST (my time).

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